designing for the senses

 scent clock, a Parsons "integrated design program" project

Though our earlier post was indeed a hoax inspired by today's date, the scent symposium I recently attended was truly inspirational and did cause lots of discussion at Ellen Hanson Designs.

My older brother Bill used to play naughty tricks on me when we were kids so when he invited me to attend the symposium at which he was speaking, I wasn’t sure if it was just another prank.  After all, my brother is a professor of critical care and anesthesiology and just because he has conducted research on ‘electronic nose’ technology doesn’t mean he knows a sniff about aromatherapy.

 Brother Bill sniffing an offering at the symposium

I was delighted and riveted by the five ‘accidental perfumers’ all of whom are designers outside of the fragrance field. Each designer had a partner from IFF to assist them in achieving their olfactive vision.

 

Ayse Birsel, Co-founder and Creative Director of Birsel + Seck

Ayse Birsel of Birsel + Seck  thought about scent as a threshold to a new experience and the team tossed around ideas like scented door frames or scent built into hinges.  Ultimately, perhaps because of their skill as product designers, they combined form with scent and conceived of a series of abstract sculptures which they called scent pebbles. These miniature works, reminiscent of Anish Kapoor's Cloud Gate, were imbued with fragrances that represent major life passages. 
  

Anish Kapoor Cloud Gate, 2004

While Ms. Birsel gave her presentation the auditorium was infused with her fragrance called Birth.  It was powdery, bright, green and “slightly toxic” as she imagined an infant’s first inhalation might smell. 

Additional passages the team explored were baby, puberty, sex, partnership, empty nest, and death.  The smell of Death was like wet leaves and earth yet was truly inviting.

Majora Carter, Majora Carter Group

Majora Carter of Sustainable South Bronx talked about the stress associated with living in a poor community and how bad smells can make you angry. Along with IFF parfumeur, Pascal Gaurin, Ms Carter was looking at how to unlock the potential of scent by changing how people experience a place. She though about encapsulating scent in clothing but instead the team, with permission from the building owner, put it in the duct work of a 100 unit apartment building.  The fragrance, Odeur de Bronx du Sur, was then infused for our delectation. Scent of rain mixed with notes of green caused Chandler Burr, perfume critic for the New York Times to ask “is this a literalist work, or perhaps an impressionistic work, or is it symbolic?” I dunno. Though I did get her desire to use scent to uplift people, I have real questions about imposing fragrance on others.  I have had to check out of hotels in the middle of the night after being slowly asphyxiated by the well-meaning and liberal use of room deodorizers.

Zoe Coombes and her partner David Boira of Commonwealth approached the assignment in a completely different way, which I found really inspiring.  The designers took reclaimed wood from a yard in Brooklyn and with all of the expertise of the IFF machine on their side had the wood tested for its scent on a molecular level. Coombes wanted to use the embodiment of this scent to help turn the raw material into an object.  The wood had a history, it had gone through a fire, there were rusty nails and tar.  

 Commonwealth: a butcher block inspired by the scent of  the raw material

When tested by IFF the material had some of the following characteristics: masculine, therapeutic, nostalgic, dark chocolate, burlap, old, stressed, overwhelming, depressed, deeper. I couldn’t write fast enough to note the extensive list of colors associated with this ancient wood. A common thread mentioned throughout the presentations was the definite connection between smell and color. AND, as we all know, colors are connected to emotion.

Sylvia Lavin, a professor at UCLA, reflected on a past where things really did smell bad- abythic vapors shrouded the city of pre-industrial Paris- but do we now live with an absence of smell?  She mused over the paradox of creating a world without scent and a corollary world of off-gassing.

To cap this unique experience, students from Parsons Interdisciplinary Design program filled hundreds of black balloons with their own creation, sexytime, a blend of chocolate, condoms, candles, sweat, nail polish, lipstick and more.  Each balloon was equipped with a handy toothpick to release the perfume with a bang.


My April Fool's gag scent, Eau de Travails, was inspired by the exciting collision of design and technology demonstrated at my brother's speaking engagement.  Can my brother Bill's electronic nose smell the future of interdisciplinary design?